Stephen Simmons
A writer of history, architecture and cultural memory, Stephen Simmons brings lost worlds back into focus with wit, curiosity and an eye for the telling detail, guided by a deep fascination with the histories of Indochina.
Author
Stephen Simmons
A former British Army Officer who served for sixteen years in Central America, Berlin, Northern Ireland and Hong Kong. On leaving the army he returned with his family to Asia where he worked in equity markets in Hong Kong, Thailand and Cambodia before returning to London. Married with two grown-up children he divides his time between East Sussex and Bangkok. He has travelled extensively throughout southeast Asia carrying out research for his books, Cambodia’s Swinging Sixties; Architecture, The Arts and a Lost Society. (Silkworm Books, Bangkok, 2025), Maymyo Days. Forgotten Lives of a Burma Hill Station. (River Books, Bangkok, 2023) and Club Class in Asia Pacific: The Insiders’ Guide to Private Members’ Clubs (Editions Didier Millet, Singapore, 2007). He is a member of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand in Bangkok, of the Army and Navy Club and The Pilgrims in London and is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
Cambodia’s Swinging Sixties
Architecture, The Arts and a Lost Society
The Asian Review of Books:
“…Stephen Simmons, in Cambodia’s Swinging Sixties: Architecture, The Arts and a Lost Society, has produced an important record that not only contains a wealth of historical information but also features many illustrations or stills of the buildings, films, fine art, and cartoons produced by artists during this disappeared era.”
Maymyo Days
Forgotten Lives of A Burma Hill Station
The Critic:
“…Stephen Simmons’ Maymyo Days, a richly illustrated and rewarding collection of vignettes of colonial-era characters who lived in or passed through the hill station of Maymyo..”
The Asian Review Of Books:
“This isn’t a book about wider Burmese history or one that focuses on the political aspects of British colonial rule in Burma, instead, Simmons focuses on the individuals who made their life in Maymyo.”
The Mekong Review:
“Maymyo Days: Forgotten Lives of a Burma Hill Station, does not however dwell on the crusty stragglers of the Raj. Maymyo attracted gifted people: the talented, the unusual, sometimes the odd. Simmons is interested in those who made lasting contribution of some kind, whether tangible, cultural or political.”
Purchase Here
The book is also stocked at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand in Bangkok and at the E&O Hotel in Penang. Both books are also available on Amazon.
Contact Me
Come and share your stories with me.